Tag: obama campaign

Had a long wait trying to get my credentials apparently instead of being at the Convention center they were at Romney HQ rather than here so I had a bit of a wait before actually getting in.

Once I got in I’ve found it fairly boring, My PC was near dead from traveling and the hone needed charging so I parked myself in a corner and started waiting.

If there is one thing I’ve discovered it’s that:

There is a difference between “projections” and “results”

and there is nothing so fickle as the folks at an event like this.

Lots of mood swings, particularly when Obama was projected to get Pennsylvania (hey last shot to steal before the voter ID law and Michigan wasn’t a big thought but the New Hampshire numbers have surprised me, an awful lot of change in just two years, but then again a lot of people have been running away from Massachusetts. Considering the results from the state so far can’t blame them.

But people here are too busy reacting to early calls, the only thing we can simply do is to wait and let the results come in and see what the actual numbers are, there is no percentage in worry or speculation.

So I will sit and wait which when it comes down it is all that can be done now.

And before we all panic over projections let me note something.

About an hour ago they were calling question 2 as a winner with 7% of the vote in

As of right now it’s trailing 51-49 with 34% of the vote in.

Like in baseball, you actually have to play the game, so don’t get panicked or angry…

…unless someone charges you $4.75 or a can of diet pepsi
Update: Scott Brown giving concession speech, Massachusetts voters getting what we deserve, I think Brown was better than Warren but perhaps the GOP should have spent some time selling conservatism rather than running from it.

We are now a week away from election day and the MSM has been given a gift called Sandy.

Why do I call it a gift to the MSM? Because it gives them a story that overwhelms all others allowing them to put the election on the second or third tier as Romney continues his march.

I have been telling you for a while that the best way to determine what is happening is what people are saying, vs what people are doing.

Yesterday I was listening to Rush on a Minnesota radio station because all the local stations were all Sandy all the time and what did to my wondering eyes did appear but news of Bill Clinton going right there.

Now let’s be clear, There is the president, there is VP and there is Bill Clinton, these are the big guns for the Democrats and are not deployed lightly.

You are sending the single most valuable non-office asset the Democrats have to Minnesota? Not Colorado? Not Nevada, not Wisconsin, not Iowa, not Virginia but MINNESOTA?

How on earth do you justify this move with a week to go unless Obama is in trouble there and if Obama is in trouble in Minnesota then….

As for Pennsylvania we Reported Paul Ryan has done events there, which tells you plenty remember Time is the one commodity you can’t get more of and if Ryan was campaigning in PA last week that means something. Now both sides are spending money in the state but with a difference. The GOP money is a super pac outside of the campaign, the Obama money is DIRECTLY FROM THE CAMPAIGN.

If the White house is spending its limited funds in Pennsylvania then that says…

Finally Florida, the big swing state what are we hearing about Florida.

Zip

Florida WAS a swing state, it was a state everyone spend a lot of time talking about how Paul Ryan was going to drive seniors away from the party.

None of this has happened. This state is in now a Romney State

If the game is no longer being played in Florida and is now being played in Minnesota & Pennsylvania know what that says?

Does this mean Romney is going to win Pennsylvania? No, but it does mean that it’s close enough that Team Obama couldn’t afford to let Romney air ads unopposed in Pennsylvania. And this news, coming just four days after it was reported that Team Obama is buying ads in Minnesota, is the best indication that Democrat insiders know that the president’s re-election is seriously endangered.

Guys, Romney is going to win this race and it’s not going to be close.

Although I want Scott Brown to win, this poll pleases me, Brown has made some big mistakes in the air war (more on that tomorrow) and hopefully this poll will cause him to pivot to a better strategy, the one that gave him the lead in the first place.

You can’t correct a problem unless you know it’s there, this poll informs the Brown campaign of a problem and thus is useful

You might ask: “DaTechGuy have you gone roadtrip crazy? Why would you love a poll showing Romney losing Ohio?”

Simple I looked at the internals of this poll. Unlike most polls the partisan splits are not as obvious, you have to do some math but it’s really quite simple.

They polled 783 people in the unweighed sample 290 Democrats, 220 Republicans and 224 independent. That comes out to a sample that is Dem 37.0% GOP 28.0 and 28.6 Ind That’s D+9

With 742 total respondents you have 273 Dems, 206 GOP and 215 independents that’s a split of 36.7% dems, 27.7% GOP and 28.9 Ind. Again a D+9 split

As Ohio is a +1 GOP state on registration this indicates the MSM has gone back to the “spin the polls” business to keep their people on the registration.

I’m delighted by this, it means the Obama campaign and the MSM has decided there is no way to reverse these numbers short of simple propaganda, this means they will not change their strategy and this race is finished.

Either that or the left is in denial, that’s exactly where I want them to be.

Closing note. In the studio on Morning Joe, Joe & Mika and the Panel are all hanging their hats on the Time Magazine poll, but Chuck Todd in Ohio hedged. Joe & Mika are opinion folk, they can afford to take a side, but Chuck Todd is the chief WH guy, he can’t look a fool

Mitt Romney is going to win this election and it’s not going to be close.

10:30 Not a single vote has changed tonight, this race is over better get used to saying President Romney folks.

10:23 Whenever this spins to the economy it is bad for the White House

10:16 Bad move by the president pivoting to economy, another slow pitch for Romney to hit out

10:12 Debate has started to backslip again

10:01 The president playing the flip flop card, not a bad tactic, but would have been more effective if he started in 1st debate to establish this theme.

9:59 The President talking about travels less effective, Romney landing some solid blows now.

9:57 The point “you skipped Israel and the countries noticed” was devastating.

9:54 The green revolution statement is important, the media gave it short shift

9:50 I’m not seeing anything so far that will change the race tonight

9:44 Is it just me or does that horses and “we have aircraft carriers” business sound condensing?

9:33 That was a slow pitch over the plate from the president, and Mitt just hit it out: I don’t want to see for the next four years what I saw the last four years. Just what he needs, and ties the 5 point plan to foreign issues pretty well with the Latin America connection.

9:32 The “never stronger alliances” just doesn’t fly, but Mitt seems to be playing prevent tonight so far or is it just me?

9:27 Am I the only guy who can’t tell these two guys apart so far?

9:17 Rather quiet exchange to this point other than the small barbs

9:12 The line concerning 50’s 20’s 80’s is cute but pretending Russia is not a threat considering they have supported the bad guys consistently is nonsense.

9:09 The path is to get the Muslim world to reject extremism on its own. That will be very hard.

9:08 The President’s answer in terms of what he did in Libya, is patently false. However the back story concerning Libya is correct.

Neither he nor his staff is censoring the comments…. but they’ve set the site up to allow others to do so.

Neither he nor his staff asked for any illegal foreign contributions, or for contributions from obviously false donors….. they just disabled the standard controls and credit card checks to allow it to happen.

They didn’t have any ties to whacky characters with extreme ideas…. but the campaign website allowed anyone to set up a “blog” and put out the propaganda.

In each case, Obama and his staff were careful to leave no directly illegal / unethical fingerprints of their own….. but they sure made it easy for “supporters unknown” to do so through their IT systems.

Deniability — it’s built right in.

It took me a long time to come to this conclusion and to say it openly, but when it comes to the Obama Administration we are simply not dealing with honorable people. To this administration the ends always justifies the means.

Bottom line these guys are Marxists and as we’ve said many times if you start from the idea they are all Marxists it makes perfect sense.

Robert Stacy McCain and the Sept Finance Report drives the final stake through the Democrats Heart:

The Democrats ended September with cash on hand of $4.6 million, compared to the Republican National Committee’s $82.6 million.

That’s nearly an 18-to-1 cash advantage for Republicans.

And if you think that’s bad this is worse:

the DNC, they had to take out loans to pay the bills so that they owed $20.5 million at the end of September, meaning that that (subtracting cash on hand from total debt) they were $15.9 million in the red — essentially bankrupt. Wasserman-Schultz’s committee only raised $3.7 million in September; at that pace, it would take them more than four months to clear their debt, even if they didn’t spend another dime in the meantime.

What is the most significant word in this story? SEPTEMBER.

You see the first debate wasn’t until Oct 3rd. September was the DNC in Charlotte. It took place the first week of the month. A convention that our media friends told us was such a success for the Obama Campaign, A Convention the media told us put Romney in a big hole, a convention that meant Romney would need a miracle of a debate performance to recover from.

Yet in the land of Realville in that awesome month for the left when the month when Republicans were going down for the third time the people who actually write the checks were so impressed by the party they left them in a state where they had about 6% of the cash the GOP did.

You can believe one of two things, either the money men all employed psychics who were under the influence of Pyroviles:

Sept 1st 2012 Big Money INC HQ

or the media was shoveling in the hopes of bucking up the left and scaring the right.

Looking at the media reaction to the debate particularly from our friends in MSNBC perfectly illustrates the difference between Strategy and Tactics that I discussed in one of my premium commentaries.

The left seems unanimous that Obama won this debate decisively, they point to the “women” questions. They point to Candy Crowley’s “tackle” of Mitt Romney. They point to polls at both CBS that had Obama winning by 8 and CNN that had Obama up by 7.

Unfortunately Barack Obama and the left are looking tactically and not strategically, they are subjecting Barack Obama to as George Bush called it: The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations.

Two weeks ago Barack Obama turned in comparatively one of the worst debate performances since Admiral Stockdale. The media and the left has been in panic ever since. They weren’t worried about Obama losing the debate, they were worried about Obama drooling all over himself, as I tweeted last night:

Romney calmer and more direct but Obama better than last time, that will be enough for @msnbc to go into orgasmic fury #debate

If you grade Barack Obama on the Denver Scale he got an A+, in reality this debate was about even, I gave Romney a 2 pt win but I have no problem with someone who gives Obama that same margin, but the goal here isn’t to be given the a nod on point, the goal is to win the election. In the Frank Luntz focus group out in Nevada, a swing state it was DEVASTATING.

Note the only defenders of Obama were all “Romney is after our ladyparts”.

On MSNBC while the entire table was ABSOLUTELY positive Obama won, the verdict of actual voters of the focus group was quite different.

and when Chris Matthews threw a loaded question attempting to push the women in the panel away from Romney, he failed.

I don’t have the CNN panel video but they also split on where they were voting.

That’s the bottom line, it doesn’t matter what people think about winning the debate it’s who they will vote for as John King on CNN said:

“Yankee fans agree the Tigers won last night but they’re not voting for Detroit”

Romney is ahead if Obama doesn’t move those voters he is toast. I’ll give Chris Barron the last word:

MT @chrisrbarron: Romney needed a game changer in the 1st debate & got it. Obama needed a game changer & didn’t get it bit.ly/REQqje

Like this:

There has been a lot of back and forth about “Will Barack Obama Throw Hillary under the Bus over Benghazi?” or vice-versa this week .

It was quite a situation, If Obama threw Hillary under the bus would the Clintons work subrosa against him? (I maintain they already have been.) If Hillary threw Obama under the bus would the African-American community make her pay in 2016, it’s one thing for them to be pissed off at Obama, it’s quite another for some white lady to beat up on him.

What do you do? Well Hillary has threaded the needle in a way that accomplishes everything she needed to thus.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday tried to douse a political firestorm around the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, saying she is responsible for the security of American diplomatic outposts.

“I take responsibility” for the protection of U.S. diplomats, Clinton said during a visit to Peru. But she said an investigation now under way will ultimately determine what happened in the attack that left four Americans dead.

The moment I heard this I had one thought: This is the move of a political master. Consider what this accomplishes:

Seemingly:

It is a statesman like move, going forward and not ducking responsibility in a way nobody has been willing to do.

In Reality:

It covers her, by taking responsibility it heads off all kinds of stories that might come up with a theme of finding fault. Why should congress investigate to pin blame when it’s already been accepted?

Seemingly:

It supports the president, by taking the blame she shields the first Black president both showing herself a good soldier to the party and most importantly to the black community.

In Reality:

It undermines Obama by making her look strong, and him look weak. He is now forced to make some kind of statement second as a response. It’s the 3 AM phone call with her answering while he goes to Vegas.

Seemingly:

It ends press coverage on what the Obama Administration should do next, blame assigned move on.

In Reality:

It doesn’t end coverage it changes it. What will the president do about this? It puts Obama in a box. Blame is assigned so what is the punishment? If Hillary is responsible does he ask for her resignation, does he fire her? With his electoral prospects already sinking he dare not do either, and God help him if she resigns on her own. It would be another example of her acting while he is paralyzed. It is the final act of Carterization of the president.

Seemingly:

It makes her vulnerable as every commentator on the right calls for her head in the hope of embarrassing Obama and taking her down a peg.

In Reality:

It gets her in good with the base of her party. I can see the fundraising e-mails now. “She’s taken responsibility and those nasty right wingers are piling on” This will coin money for her. That doesn’t even take into account how the press will react.

Seemingly:

It hurts her 2016 election prospects after all she is responsible for an attack on the US on the Anniversary of 9/11 no less.

In Reality:

Not only does this make her look presidential (Expect comparisons to JFK’s Bay of Pigs speech from the MSM) but it neutralizes her primary opponents on the subject, in fact for the second time in twelve years she will be able to paint herself as the victim of the irresponsibility of a man who should have known better.

Seemingly:

It hands President Romney a ready-made issue in 2016 to use.

In Reality:

It puts Romney in a box. Every president has foreign policy failures and Mitt will have his share. Imagine the debate answer: “President Romney is right. I was secretary of state during the Benghazi debacle and I took full responsibility for it. What I would like to know is when the president will take responsibility for (insert relevant issue here)”. It will put and keep Mitt on the defensive.

The Bottom line is forgetting all the national security and moral issues involved. Hillary has done the thing that most helps her in the long run while all the time managing to undermine her foes on both the left and the right in one fell swoop.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing to do, it IS but as usual the right thing is generally the smart thing and this was the smartest thing anyone in this administration has done in a while.

This story may continue, but in terms of its negative impact there will be little if any on Hillary Clinton from this point on.

Why am I not a Presidential candidate? Because if I was Mitt, I’d be all: “I’d like to congratulate the President on his choice of Secretary of State. After the better part of four years, somebody in the Administration finally took responsibility the way leaders do, on one of those hopefully rare occasions when it involves confessing a shortcoming. In this case, one that involved the butchery of four Americans. Hopefully this President isn’t too old to learn something from all this. Better leaders plan so as to minimize these sorts of tragedies. Lesser men play the Casablanca card and locate a usual suspects for a round-up. How is Nakoula doing these days, Mr. President?”

Update 2: On Morning Joe Hillary Clinton compared to JFK. Think about it, in under 12 hours Hillary goes from: “The person responsible for a disaster” to JFK saying “defeat is an orphan”.

It’s a jaw-dropping display of a leadership vacuum, which Hillary ended up having to fill herself. This is exactly what Hillary warned voters about in 2008. The contrast between her moment of leadership in this crisis and Obama’s lack of leadership since the very beginning of it will not help Obama make the case for another four years of buck-passing at the top, not even when Obama showed leadership on the Nicki Minaj-Mariah Carey feud.

Today’s Subscription video talks about the difference between Strategic thinking vs Tactical thinking and includes a bit of Civil War History.

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We are only a week away from DaTechGuy 100th show Celebration at Lago’s Ristorante on October 20th. We will be broadcasting live from 10-noon and then staying till 2 to eat and say hello to all the people who made 100 weeks possible.

During a debate with Sean Bielat the Democrat nominee was bluntly asked if he would be getting the attention he is as a candidate for Congress if his name wasn’t Joe Kennedy This recording of his answer told me something…

…it tells he has more of a future re-recording classic David Seville songs from the 50’s than as a maker of the nations laws.

If you aren’t familiar with the hit in question here it is:

If I was Joe Kennedy I’d be pretty embarrassed, on the bright side he didn’t say anything as stupid as this:

Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said Thursday that the “entire reason” the terrorist attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans has “become the political topic it is” is because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan talk about the attack.

I see what Ms. Cutter means, If the Obama campaign believes there is certainly no reason why Americans might consider the murder of their fellow Americans and an Ambassador an issue worth anybody’s attention who am I to say otherwise? After all hundreds of dead Mexicans never made fast and furious an issue worth covering.

Joe Kennedy has the excuse of ignorance and inexperience for his answer, I have no idea what Ms. Cutter’s excuse is.

Perhaps he might consider replacing Ms. Cutter in the Obama campaign once she resigns, after all his version of Witch Doctor would have hurt the Obama Campaign less than her practiced answer.
Update: Stacy McCain remembers the golden age of Panic

@michellemalkin Have you noticed, w Romney gaining in polls, liberals seem to be returning to 2002-05 Golden Age of Unhinged Moonbattery?

Like this:

To those democrats and Independents whose minds are open to argument, listen closely to the Democratic party that will gather in Charlotte, ask yourself if you hear your voice in the clamor, ask if these Democrats still speak for you?

Artur Davis Aug 28th 2012

Several months ago I was on a conference call with the now official GOP nominee for ma-4 Sean Bielat during which his operative Sarah Rumpf actually referred us to Joe Kennedy III’s web site to see how devoid it was of idea.

It was an extraordinary moment I had never heard of a representative of a candidate directing voters to their opponent site and I asked her about it. She said she had never made such a recommendation before but Kennedy’s website demonstrated his lack of ideas so well.

During the GOP convention that the MSM declared a failure Artur Davis Former Congressman from Alabama and Former member of the Democrat Party during a speech Rob Eno of Red Mass Group said “Should have been the Keynote” implored Americans to Watch the Democrat Convention and see if that is the party they think it is.

Lucky for the Democrat party most American’s didn’t take him up on it so they received a filtered and spun version of reality where the booing of God and Jerusalem was a non issue and Bill Clinton’s speech was not outdrawn by the opening of the Football season.

Now that the first debate is behind us and the protective screen that the media has surrounded the Obama campaign has been pierced NOW is the time to replay on the air some of those highlights that the media decided was not newsworthy at the time.

I think some of those videos might be a revelation to those who still think this is John F. Kennedy’s Democrat party. It certainly will be a revelation to those getting those calls claiming Barack Obama is not pro abortion.

In the days before instant communication it was not uncommon for surrogates for candidates touring the west to not just tailor their message to fit a particular community, but to bluntly declare a candidates support for a hot button issue in one town while in another proclaim his undying opposition to the same issue.

With no way to check and with the likelihood of a tiny local paper’s report not going beyond the area it was pretty safe. Even if an individual noticed the voice of that individual ability to call out such behavior was generally limited to the individuals they saw in person.

Well years have passed and lo and behold some tactics have not changed one bit and the target seems to be Catholics:

While the campaign denies that faith will be used to hammer on Romney, campaign callers are pushing Mitt’s Mormonism as a reason for Catholics not to vote for Romney.

Now anyone who has paid attention to this blog or Stacy McCain’s is not the least bit surprised to see the “Mormon” card but while that is despicable, what followed really shocked me:

Just a week ago, I reported a call from an Obama supporter received by a Catholic in Pennsylvania. The caller, identifying herself as Catholic, insisted Obama was not pro-abortion and Planned Parenthood did not encourage abortions.

“Well, I could not believe that I had received another call from the Obama campaign looking for another of my college aged children in less than a week. I informed the caller that my son was a practicing Catholic and would not be supporting a pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage candidate who did not respect the Catholic faith in his HHS mandate that would force all Catholics to pay for birth control, sterilization, and the abortion pill.”

At that point, the Obama supporter started reading from the same script that Joy had heard from the first call.

Mind you at the very same time we have Democrats running ads in New England attacking Republicans for their opposition to abortion. Stacy McCain:

This is a scripted attack, which seems to be a “push poll” specifically targeted at Catholics registered as Republican, with the purpose of suppressing the pro-life vote for Mitt Romney. Exactly how widespread it is or who is funding and directing it, we don’t know.This is what is called Push Polling

There was a time when such tactics might fly under the radar, but in the days of the intenet and Fox news.

It’s just not as easy.

Now if these people had taken Artur Davis advice and actually watched the Democrat convention they likely wouldn’t be substitutable to this nonsense, but as things are I expect the same MSM that had no idea how SNL could parody the 1st Obama/Romney debate to not touch this except as part of their post election analysis

Catholics across the nation should be prepared to receive these deceitful and dissembling phone calls. They should learn from this Catholic mother, this pro-life warrior and RN, to speak the truth, with charity, to those who are willing to tell lies in support of their favored political candidate.

These Catholics for Obama calls are coming your way — the scripts are written, their call centers are ready, and they are well-funded.

What really amazes me is the people identifying themselves as Catholics saying things they know are simply not true. Stacy McCain again

“This is Chicago thugocracy on display. Demoncrats have no morals. Their hero Saul Alinsky taught that the ends justifies the means.”

Indeed, and — remembering that Alinsky dedicated his book Rules for Radicals to Lucifier — these tactics are quite literally Satanic.

Well that being the case, for my fellow Catholics I suggest invoking St. Thomas Moore. & St. John Fisher in that spirit I have composed the following prayer:

St. John Fisher & St. Thomas Moore at the cost of your own lives you defended the truth of the faith. We beg you in this election season to aid us. Help us to hear the truth as taught by the holy church that you died to defend, defend the right in the face of opprobrium and give us the strength to reject the temptation to deceive for any worldly gain or goal. Through your intercession, may the same Holy Spirit that sustained you in trial inspire us to the right . We ask this through Christ our Lord

Amen

And remember we must pray not only for those who are the targets of deception but for those trying to deceive.

Today’s Subscription video is Screwtape & Obama and a question of reality:

No matter how you spin or slice it reality tends to seep through after time. I think that’s the real problem for Obama and the mainstream media.

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We are getting closer and closer to DaTechGuy 100th show Celebration at Lago’s Ristorante on October 20th. We will be broadcasting live from 10-noon and then staying till 2 to eat and say hello to all the people who made 100 weeks possible.

What do you think the Swedes’ll say sir?” he asked, greatly daring. The responsibility was none of his, and he knew by experience that Hornblower was likely to resent being reminded that Bush was thinking about it.

“They can say what they like” said Hornblower, “but nothing they can say can but Blanchefleur together again”

C. S. Forester Commodore Hornblower 1945 p 129

My father has been dead for over 25 years but one of the lessons he taught me that really stuck was this: If something needs to be done, don’t ask permission first do it, DO IT!

It has served me well, particularly in reporting, but the administration seems to have taken this advice to the next level.

There is under 40 days to the election, Barack Obama will never be running for president again (I don’t subscribe to the “dictator” theory that some hold) the idea is to get re-elected. As I’ve pointed out for over a year, the facts on the ground and the actions of those with skin in the game have indicated disaster for a long time.

While media has instead been all “happy happy joy joy” the Obama campaign knows where things actually are, when they are behind closed door they are forced to live in realville. The first rule is to WIN, that is the thing they want to do and they are not going to worry about the niceties.

They would much rather deal with questions of voting irregularities controlling the justice department not worry about that from Hawaii.

They would much rather talk to Lockheed now about disobeying the law and let Jay Carney try to answer Jake Tapper’s questions than hit a President Romney over the job losses.

They would much rather talk about a 7.8% jobs figure during the month of October and then wait for the “adjusted figures” in a month or two, than have to deal with one more month of defending 8% on the campaign trail.

They would much rather take those untraced credit card contributions with the security codes off, then explain why the money isn’t there for those 30 second attack ads.

They would much rather deal with a GOP congress investigating the administration on Fast & Furious, Libya, Solyndra et/al then have a GOP congress ignore them as old news of the last administration.

And while the Media would “question the timing” if a GOP candidate was running for re-election the Obama campaign knows the media will question the questioning instead.

It’s like the old Joke Tip O’Neill told in his book about the bartender calling the owner to see if Casey is good for a drink:

Owner: Has he had it?

Bartender: Yes

Owner: Then he’s good for it.

Now my father was a principled man who wouldn’t do a dishonest thing if you paid him (and on occasion suffered dearly for his refusal to do so but that’s another story) but if you believe with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake and power few people can imagine the Chicago Crowd is going to have any restraints.

Like this:

He’s going to show you the bricks. He’ll show you they got straight sides. He’ll show you how they got the right shape. He’ll show them to you in a very special way, so that they appear to have everything a brick should have. But there’s one thing he’s not gonna show you. When you look at the bricks from the right angle, they’re as thin as this playing card. His whole case is an illusion, a magic trick.

My Cousin Vinny 1992

Remain Calm, all is well

Animal House 1978

We are now more than 24 hours out of the Obama/Romney and the full impact of the Media & the Obama campaign’s brief visit to Realville is still rippling though the political community.

For months the Obama Campaign and the Media have crafted a carefully built house of cards that Barack Obama has been in the lead for months and that the GOP had no chance.

Their weapons were polls skewed even more that the shots of the villains hideout in the old Batman series and the control of the narrative that the media can shape.

But on Wednesday 65 million people+ saw Mitt Romney next to Barack Obama, unfiltered, face to face and they liked what they saw.

The excuses poured out. Oh it was the altitude, oh Jim Lehrer didn’t do his job (apparently this job is to carry the Democrat Candidate see David Gregory and the 2nd part of the Scott Brown Elizabeth Warren), Romney was using “racist dog whistles“, oh and Romney was just a big fat liar etc etc etc.

The real problem is an economy that is in horrible shape

The real problem is even with skewed polls people think the country is in the wrong direction

The real problem is each day more facts on Libya come out damaging to the administrations narrative

Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe yesterday alone noted the lack of his teleprompter. But the real problem has been the lack of a competent president

The real problem is the empty Chair that Clint Eastwood debated showed up Wednesday.

And now the Tens of millions of people who don’t follow the fight every day like you dear reader, saw the emperor with no clothes and then went back to their lives immune to the agreed counter message the left/whitehouse/msm is now coordinating.

And people are figuring it out. Three examples:

Remember AARP booing of Paul Ryan at their convention. The media pushed that story. But they didn’t do much pushing on their coordination with the Obama administration in passing Obamacare

Thanks to just-released emails from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, we now know that AARP worked through 2009-10 as an extension of a Democratic White House, toiling daily to pass a health bill that slashes $716 billion from Medicare, strips seniors of choice, and sets the stage for rationing. We know that despite AARP’s awareness that its seniors overwhelmingly opposed the bill, the “nonpartisan membership organization” chose to serve the president’s agenda.

The 71 pages of emails show an AARP management taking orders from the White House, scripting the president’s talking points, working to keep its board “in line,” and pledging fealty to “the cause.” Seniors deserve to know all this, as AARP seeks to present itself as neutral in this presidential election.

“While we respect the rights of each campaign to make its case to voters, AARP has never consented to the use of its name by any candidate or political campaign. AARP is a nonpartisan organization and we do not endorse political candidates nor coordinate with any candidate or political party.

Simple question: Even if the president had a bad day, does AARP throw Barack Obama under the bus if they see him winning?

We’ve been told that Barack Obama has a huge advantage in early voting, we’ve seen poll after poll talking about how even if Romney “turns things around” too many people have already voted.

While in 2008, 33 percent of the 1,158,301 absentee ballots went to Democrats and just 19 percent to registered Republicans, a 14-point gap, this year 29 percent are being requested by Democrats and 24 percent by Republicans, a five-point gap.

What could be worse for Obama?

University of Dayton Professor Larry Schweikart told American Majority Action President Ned Ryun that the GOP gains favor Romney. “Although it is early, we will soon be at a point where–assuming Republicans vote for Romney–the Democrats will have to overwhelmingly win all the remaining early voting just to be even on November 6. But, given Ohio’s voting history, if the numbers are even close after early voting, Obama will lose, and possibly lose big.”

A Guardian survey of six of the most crucial swing states upon which the outcome of the presidential ballot is likely to depend has found that new voter registrations recorded between January and August this year are markedly down compared with the same period in 2008. The drop is particularly pronounced in several states for the Democrats – a likely indication that Barack Obama’s re-election team has been unable to match the exceptional levels of voter excitement generated by his candidacy four years ago.

and of course Rasmussen poll which shows the GOP registration at its second highest number ever.

Question: If the president is doing so well, where are all these republicans coming from?

Finally as I’ve said before, as we get closer and closer to the finish line, time becomes the one commodity you can’t get more of, so every second is precious.

Yesterday President Obama coming off his disastrous performance in Denver had a large and successful rally at least through the eyes of a fan:

When Obama arrives, looking casual in khakis and a jacket, the clouds literally part. Good grief, does this guy have even the sun on his campaign payroll? Surveying the huge audience, he gets them eating out of his hand from the start: “I’ve been told this is good practice for Halloween on State Street!”

This is not the subdued, diplomatic Obama of the presidential debate. Offering a clue about the way he’ll spend the month before the election, the president lights into Mitt Romney with gusto. Referring to Romney’s overeager debate performance, he says, “I met this very spirited fellow who looked like Mitt Romney.” The conceit is that this “fellow” wasn’t the real Romney, having masked his views to appear more moderate.

Aside from this new material on the debate, much of what Obama says is familiar: “We can’t afford to double-down on the same trickle-down policies that got us into this mess.” “We succeed when everyone has a shot.” But he delivers his message so fiercely that you fear for Mitt Romney’s safety at the next debate.

Obama has the crowd screaming as he turns up the heat at the end of his speech. “I’m not fighting to create Democratic or Republican jobs, I’m fighting to create American jobs!”

A pretty picture, but the problem isn’t the picture it’s where the picture is being taken.

The rally was in Madison Wisconsin, a state that just last month the media reported polls showing a double digit lead for the President.

Question: If the polls are correct as reported, why is the president spending one of the few precious days left in this campaign in a supposedly safe blue state?

The answer to all of these things is simple, the Obama Campaign like the Obama presidency has been what it always has been, a con, grift, an illusion. Take off the media filter and you see things as they are.

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David Freddoso who said on Twitter that if all you knew about Romney was what you saw in Obama’s TV ads, you’d get the sense that Obama’s been lying to you all this time. Romney helped himself tonight — possibly a lot.

I’ve written a lot about the skew in the polls but today in the hot air green room Matt Vespa in the process of debunking Chris “The sky is falling for the GOP” Cilliza brings up a point that almost nobody is talking about:

This leads us to the next poll: the direction of the country. What “jolt of optimism” is Cillizza talking about? Rasmussen has 36% of Americans believing the nation is on the right track.

Now while we give our friends on the left a few minutes to scream how: “Rasmussen can’t be trusted” business lets take a look at the overall numbers in this poll since Jan 2009 the month Barack Obama Took office:

When you look at that chart remember this is an AVERAGE of every single polls that is measured not a single poll that skews one way or the other.

Right now the MSM is running a ton of polls with huge Democrat skews yet take a look at the results at the end of the chart for today:

56.3 vs 37.6 Wrong track over right track that’s a spread of 18.7 and consider this: The CBS/NYT poll and the NBC/WSJ poll, the two polls that are the most skewed have a wrong track/right track numbers of -19 & -16 respectively.

Think about that: Even with a sample that couldn’t favor Obama more if they were paid employees of the white house they can’t even get a gap of less that 10 pts let alone a favorable number.

More importantly consider the historical perspective:

You have to go to June 13th 2009 to find a day during the last 4 years where the right track/wrong track numbers were equal.

On Jan 20th 2010 the national spread was 56.9 to 36.6 just 2.4 off today’s number yet the day before Massachusetts, a state that nobody contends is a state where the president has a chance of losing in 2012 elected a Republican senator to replace the late Ted Kennedy.

On Election day 2010 the spread of 63.8 to 31.2 A 32.6 points gap, just under double what it is today and the GOP won nationwide in an election so historic it reached into statehouses all over the country.

On September 13th 2011 the spread was 73.6 to 20.8 a gap of 52.8 and for the first time since Woodrow Wilson was president a republican won an election in the 9th district of NY right in the heart of New York City.

What does that mean for today?

On Election day 2012, It is unlikely the right direction/ wrong direction spread will be 52.8. That suggest Mitt Romney isn’t going to manage to win the State of New York.

On Election day 2012 It is unlikely the right/wrong spread will be 32.6. That suggests Mitt Romney isn’t going to manage a victory of historic proportions all over the country.

But with just over 40 days to the election with polls so skewed it’s a wonder the computers they are tabulated on don’t tip over the right/wrong track is 18.7 pretty close to the numbers on the Day Scott Brown was first elected, does that mean Mitt is going to do well enough to take a state as blue as Massachusetts?

I think not, but unfortunately for the left, he doesn’t have to take Massachusetts, or New York or any other deep blue state. He has to take the states in the middle, the ones that once voted for the GOP but went to Obama in the heady days of Nov 2008 for the left.

And a with a right track / wrong track number of 18.7 that’s not only doable that’s practically inevitable.

I’m sure there are people who might not like Mitt Romney, I’m sure there are those who don’t like he is a Mormon, those who don’t like he is rich and those who think he’s kind of stiff.

But unless you live in the land of deep blue delusion nobody in their right mind would suggest he is unqualified to be president.

This election isn’t going to be about: “Do I like Mitt Romney?” This election isn’t even going to be about “Has Barack Obama done a good job” the polling shows the verdict is already in on it.

The people are dying to vote against Barack Obama, all Mitt Romney has to do is convince them he can do the job, because Barack Obama has already convinced them he can’t.
Update: VDH notes how few votes it would have taken to make 1980 a Carter victory

In other words, until the very last week of the campaign, Reagan had an uphill fight. True, he eventually won a landslide victory in the Electoral College (489 to 49) and beat Carter handily in the popular vote. Yet Reagan only received a 51-percent majority.

What had saved Reagan from a perfect storm of negative factors — gaffes, additional conservative candidates on the ballot, a single debate, and a biased media — was not just the debate. Voter turnout was relatively low at only 53 percent. If Reagan’s conservative base was united and energized, Carter’s proved divided and indifferent.

Mitt doesn’t have a John Anderson but he also doesn’t have Reagan’s charisma, his conclusion:

The winner probably won’t be decided by old video clips, gaffes, or even campaign money, but by turnout and the October debates — depending on whether incumbent Obama comes across as a petulant Carter and challenger Romney appears an upbeat Reagan. As in 1980, voters want a better president — but they first have to be assured he’s on the ballot.

If it’s day ending in “y” we have a poll showing Mitt Romney in terrible shape:

A new POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll of likely voters finds little good news for Mitt Romney but a race that remains competitive.

Obama leads 50 percent to 47 percent, which is within the margin of error. His 50 percent job approval rating puts him at a crucial threshold for an incumbent seeking reelection. It’s an uptick from the spring and summer, but 48 percent still disapprove.

It’s interesting to note that on TV this split being played up a lot more than in the written story. On Morning Joe this was evidence Mitt Romney DOOM! (no video available yet)

However Dalek Media not withstanding I live in realville and in realville we judge polls by their internals and the internals of this poll have two results that say a lot:

Let’s zoom in on that

So we have a poll with a 43-40 sample D + 3 but lets look even closer at the internals. They asked a really good question:

Which of these statements best describes how you have usually voted in past elections:

Not only do you have a 49-45 split D vs R here but look at the straight/strongly numbers and you have D + 7 split.

Let’s remind everyone where the Electorate actually is:

Ok lets give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt and assume that after the DNC convention who’s most memorable moment is needing a phony vote to put God & Jerusalem back in the platform the 4.3 GOP August advantage has gone back to a 0.9 that existed in July. That still means this poll is off +4 to +5

I submit and suggest that until the media answers that question, all they are doing is spreading Democrat propaganda.

I don’t pretend I am not unbiased but the numbers are the numbers, if you have the numbers to back up what you say, provide them, if you don’t then you are simply an in-kind contribution to the Barack Obama campaign.

BTW I call the MSM the “Dalek Media” because no matter what MSM show you see they all look alike, all sound alike and if you dare speak words that contradict their liberal narrative this is their reaction:

Not only do we have a D+8 sample on this poll but when it’s known that Democrats do better with women and the GOP with men this poll has a +6 split women over men.

Update 2: Heard back from the reporter who did the initial story on the PA poll, internals go out tomorrow but he directed me to this link which shows a D+6 sample

First, our ratio of interviews conducted with Republicans and Democrats in our recent polls (49D – 43R) gives Democrats a 6-point advantage based on the fact that Democrats outnumber Republicans in actual registration. However, this ratio is slightly more Republican based on both national and state polling showing that Republicans are more likely to vote than Democrats this year given high intensity among Republicans who strongly disapprove of the President’s job performance. Nonetheless, this +6 Democratic advantage is only one point less Democrat than the 7-point advantage these same exit polls gave Democrats in the 2008 presidential election.

After all we have heard the MSM spend the better part of today not only attacking Mitt Romney for saying things to big money donors but saying them BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. In fact we heard Stephanie Cutter of the Obama Campaign stress on MSNBC how bad it was that Mitt Romney spoke these words to rich people “behind closed doors.”

So it must a great relief to the MSM to know the Obama Campaign that they so love and respect will open the doors tonight to their $40,000 a head Manhattan event, they will be happy to have the cameras rolling as President Obama says exactly what he thinks to the guests on topics from Egypt to taxes to the deficit.

I’m sure Morning Joe will be very happy to analyze and contrast President Obama’s words, I’m positive Chuck Todd will have the full rundown on them and I’m really looking forward to Stephanie Cutter being able to contrast the open and transparent nature of President Obama’s event to a video shot secretly months ago.

And if for some reason MSNBC isn’t given the video and access is denied and no questions are forthcoming I’m sure MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, Current TV and all their host will deplore the lack of transparency with the same vigor that they dissected the video provided by Mother Jones.

After all, openness and finding the truth is what the whole MSM is all about, as Chuck Todd once put it:

“My job is to bring up issues that Americans care about. It’s my responsibility to ask the tough questions. No matter whose leading the country they need to be held accountable. I have unique access to the president, his advisers, the candidates and members of congress. I’d better use that access for a greater good, use it for people who can’t get through the White House Gates, for people who can’t be heard. The American People deserve answers”

By this time tomorrow we will discover if proper label for this video is “Lean Forward” or “Bend over”

If you want to understand how the left thinks, this week we have seen the perfect expression of it in the reactions to two images/videos

When the Morning Joe folks and the Left saw this image:

Their reaction was non-existent except to attack the right as either being phony supporters of the 1st amendment or nuts for suggesting that the detention of a person over the making of a video no matter how bad (and I’m sorry Zilla but this movie was so bad lemmings use it as a training film)

Nope, nothing wrong, nothing to see here.

Yet when they see this video of Mitt Romney

the entire left is declaring that it means Mitt Romney is unfit to be president

So nighttime arrests of film makers is OK but saying suggesting people who don’t believe in personal responsibility aren’t going to be persuaded by such a message That’s disqualifying.

This is the left’s reality, this is what the left actually thinks. That’s why they actually think the 1st image will be have no effect on the re-election prospects of Barack Obama but the Romney campaign video that’s death.

This is delusion on a grand scale, in November these guys are going to get the shock of his life.

No matter where he stops, the clips shown on television are all about the bringing justice to our enemies it sounds familiar:

Strangely enough if you read foreign papers the press is showing a different narrative the independent:

According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and “lockdown”, under which movement is severely restricted.

Egypt’s General Intelligence Service warned that a jihadi group is planning to launch terrorist attacks against the US and Israeli embassies in Cairo, according to a report Tuesday by Egypt Independent, citing a secret letter obtained by Al-Masry Al-Youm.

One of the things I’ve noticed about the current crisis are the parallels between the actions of this administration here and the actions of the Democrats during the DNC. Lets looks at the sequence of events:

In all the talk and the gushing you don’t see much on the internals, because if you look at them you see several interesting things:

First lets look at gender, as you know Obama is up with women and down with men, so what was the sample of this poll?

Hold on a second. it’s axiomatic that Obama is polling better with women than men, We are running a polls with an 8 point gap in gender and calling it significant?

let’s look a little closer How about party affiliation?

Hmm a 4 pt split advantage to Democrats, how does that square with the actual party split in the state? I’m not a big fan of Wikipedia but it is the quickest source I could find it shows the demographic split as in Ohio as GOP+1

So in a state that has a 1 pt GOP advantage PPP and the MSM is touting a poll with a 4 pt Dem Skew, a five point difference and lo and behold, what happens? Obama is up 5.

But DaTechGuy, you say. “what about the ideological split, you didn’t mention that, that split favors conservatives.”

I’m glad you brought that up, lets take a look at the self identified conservative/liberal split of the respondents:

Now that’s kind of odd isn’t it? this crosstab suggest that you have a 42% of the people in the poll self identifying themselves as conservative in a poll that is 37% Republican, yet only 28% call themselves liberal? Are we to believe that ALL of republicans are Conservatives with some spill over to the middle or is it more likely that our liberal friends, like their fellows in the media don’t see their own biases and believe themselves moderate?

But OK that’s a supposition, not a fact so if this poll is to be believed Romney is polling 3 pts above his conservative base yet obama is polling 22 pts above his liberal one.

Is there anyone ANYONE stupid enough to believe that? Are you?

This is the poll the MSM is pushing. These figures are available to them just as they are to me, why is it that they are treating these Ohio numbers as Gospel? The answer is in my previous post today from Sarah Hoyt:

However, unless you are going to deny that Journolist ever existed, that respectable journalists engaged to elect Barack Obama despite his deep negatives by coordinating attacks on anyone who challenged him, you can’t say they don’t conspire on the propaganda front. In fact, that’s all they have.

Update 2: AllahPundit notes a CNN poll getting a lot of press that is just as….interesting:

Speaking of which, number two: Romney trails overall by six points while leading among independents … by 14?

The only way to make those numbers make sense is if the sample of likely voters skews sharply Democratic, which seems improbable, and if the sample of independents here is minuscule. That wouldn’t be unusual for CNN, if so: Just like last week, it looks like they’re pressing hard to get self-identified indies to identify themselves as leaners one way or the other and then reserving the indie column for the few remaining “true independents.” With a small enough sample, Romney could theoretically lead O by 50 points among this group and still trail overall.

Let me point out one basic thing, if the electorate would produce the results they wanted you wouldn’t see such interesting sample gymnastics.

The TV networks wouldn’t reveal who he was, the print press wouldn’t reveal who Barack Obama was, and the colleges that hold his transcripts close to the vest wouldn’t reveal who Barack Obama was. But the last four years have.

It’s revealed that he is more interest in golf than governing.

It’s revealed when it was time to make deals his answer was “I won.”

It’s revealed he was more interested in Obamacare than the economy.

It’s revealed that his conviction on marriage are fungible if the price is right.

It’s revealed his hostility to the Church.

it’s revealed that he’s a president who will support the Muslim Brotherhood over our allies.

It’s revealed that he will throw Israel under the bus.

It’s revealed he has the thinnest skin of any president of my lifetime INCLUDING Nixon.

It’s revealed that he is hostile to small business who in his mind owes their success to the government.

and most of all it’s revealed that he is totally over his head in this job.

The worst part of it, many of us saw this train wreck coming but nobody wanted to hear it.

The Tragedy of Barack Obama in my mind isn’t his presidency, the Tragedy is it took the disaster of the last four years to awake people to see it.

“We can’t tell people who to vote for, but we can certainly point out the differences,” said the Rev. Lin Hill, associate minister of the 2,500-member Bethany Baptist Church, which hosted the gathering on Saturday. “Our president has declared Jesus Christ to be his Lord and savior, while his opponent denies the deity of Christ.”

and more:

In the central Florida city of Melbourne, for instance, several ministers joined forces recently to host a community forum to address lingering questions about Obama’s gay-marriage announcement. Roughly 200 people attended the meeting, during which pastors tried to reassure congregants that Obama, however misguided on this one issue, still demonstrated Christian values in his personal life and policy decisions. Most parishioners seemed satisfied, the pastors said.

I wonder what they’ll have to say about this? I guess it’s time to have this discussion again.

Strangely enough the media that was so concerned about the GOP platform consider it just words, but lets not forget something, the people in charge of this platform had to proactively remove these words and all the Durbin squirming can’t change it.

It was OK but wasn’t all that special. When people asked me about the movie however I found my self talking about funny scenes (Do-nut Remover) and laughing. When I went back with my other son I found myself laughing and that’s when it hit me. When I went the first time I was thinking Moe, Larry & Curly from the 30’s & 40’s. the original Stooges. When I saw it without the expectations of the past I was able to enjoy the movie for what it was. (Still didn’t like the baby duel scene).

That brings us to Clint Eastwood at the RNC.

When I watched Eastwood on the stage I thought it was one of the weirdest things I had seen. While he made some great points he looked his age, and while the chair business was something right out of the sixties, Morey Amsterdam and Bob Newhart.

As Time magazine’s Mark Halperin explained on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, “I think everyone has missed that Eastwood’s performance is very closely based on a Morey Amsterdam performance from dinner theater in Bayonne. Kind of night at the improv.”

Amsterdam was a stand-up comic who had his own sitcom on TV from 1948 to 1950 and also appeared on “The Dick Van Dyke Show “as Buddy Sorrell.

But the argument could be made that Eastwood was also evoking a little Bob Newhart, whose classic “Driving Instructor” routine first appeared on his “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” album in 1960.

This actually makes sense people tend to remember the comedy of their youth (you see a lot of Python here) but the real question is: Did it work?

I noted at the time Eastwood managed to accomplish several things, holding the audience & absorbing the hits from the left, but my thought is that he basically won a news cycle and that’s it.

Not Anymore.

Apparently Clint Eastwood struck a never fever nationally and the White House and the left is worried, VERY Worried.

The right rallied on Labor Day to celebrate “National Empty Chair Day,” a show of solidarity with Clint Eastwood after his rambling address to an invisible President Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention last week.

The action picked up steam on Twitter, where the hashtag #emptychairday began trending on Monday morning as users tweeted pictures of empty chairs in various poses.

And now we have the left trying to get Betty White to counter Eastwood at the DNC: ABC News:

They’ve taken on big banks and workers’ rights abuses, now the progressive activists at Change.org have their sights set on bringing comedienne Betty White, 90, to the Democratic National Convention.

“Clint Eastwood, the Republican’s ‘mystery guest’ at the RNC, gave a bad name to older Americans everywhere with his absurd and awkward-to-watch introduction of Governor Romney,” Peter Slutsky wrote in his petition to draft White. “Governor Romney can have Clint Eastwood and his improvisational skills because President Obama has the one and only Betty White!”

Remember this is Memeorandum TODAY 5 days later and this is still on top.

I thought the Eastwood thing was a one day blip, but I was wrong, this has turned out to be devastating to the left.

One day Stories don’t generate events that generate Politico coverage.

After all, who is Clint Eastwood? He is one of the top actors, directors and producers of motion pictures in the world. Most of the world — and almost certainly everyone tuning in to the RNC Thursday night — knows this. Yet most of the analyses of his RNC appearance are based on the notion that we were not witnessing acting. That mass suspension of disbelief may be the highest tribute Eastwood will ever be paid as an actor. If you think the Eastwood on stage was the only Eastwood there is, watch him promoting J. Edgar on The Daily Show last November. I have little doubt he will be equally sharp promoting Trouble With the Curve in the next few weeks.

The chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, rallying state delegates before the Democratic National Convention, today said that Senator Scott Brown tried to portray himself as “an honorary girl” by folding laundry in a TV commercial targeting women voters.

Chairman John Walsh made the comment in a blistering opening statement at the delegation’s first breakfast meeting before the convention kicks off Tuesday. Brown is facing a stern reelection challenge from Democrat Elizabeth Warren, who will address the convention on Wednesday night.

Mind you this was not a single congressman speaking in an interview. This was the Massachusetts Democrat Party Chairman speaking at a DNC breakfast to the Massachusetts delegation.

The Globe Story continues:

Asked about his “honorary girl” comment afterward, the chairman told the Globe that he was being “fresh.”

Hey, John—I fold laundry. I do dishes, too. And I love to cook. So am I an “honorary girl,” too?

That’s funny but not the point. How did the delegation react? Did they clap, did they boo? How was he not shouted down? Where are the members of the delegation denouncing the comment on camera? These are remarks made by a Democrat Party State Charmian at the Democrat Party’s National Convention, a convention featuring Sandra Fluke and nobody’s talking? Where is Debbie Wasserman Schultz calling for his resignation? Where is Stephanie Cutter demanding he apologize? Where is Barack Obama or even former Obama Administration official Elizabeth Warren distancing herself from this chairman?

And where on earth is the MSM?, I saw this on Twitter TWITTER! How is it that the media that was all Todd Akin all the time not doing wall to wall coverage on this remark? They aren’t just excusing this remark, they are SILENT.

If you didn’t understand that the “War on Women” business was as phony as a $3 bill before, you sure ought to now.

InTrade still has Obama ahead, but I’m not sure why information like this doesn’t have a bigger impact.

That’s a good point but something hit me.

Let’s say I’m a person who wants to influence the narrative but can’t contribute legally or has already reached the legal limit, how can I make a difference financially?

InTrade is an easy choice.

Let’s take a look at InTrade today in terms of the president’s re-election:

Let’s do the math, $5.69 a share 223 shares $5.79 x 223 = $1291.71

So it would cost $1291.71 to buy up every share at the lowest price available.

To put this in perspective Sarah Jessica Parker put on a $40,000 per plate fundraiser for the president in June. All those shares can be purchased by 3.2% of a single plate:

This is one $40,000 Sarah Jessica Parker fundraising plate

That’s how much it would cost to move Intrade for a day. less than a carrot on a fundraising plate.

“But DaTechGuy” you say, “Why would people just throw money away on InTrade when they can use it elsewhere in the campaign?”

Au contraire, first of all. it’s no more throwing away money than any other political campaign donation and secondly if they manage to pull off the win, then not only will the reward be the same as any other political contribution, but you might even get a direct cash return that might not otherwise be possible.

If I was the Obama Campaign I’d make sure those InTrade futures didn’t drop below 50% till the very end of the election, it’s short money for a vital talking point particularly when soon it will be the only measure that can be manipulated in her favor.

Only on Face the Nation did you see an answer. When Bob Schieffer asked the question Martin O’Malley gov of Maryland quickly said “No” and changed the subject.

Bill Richardson, Stephanie Cutter went along with changing that subject.

That’s the problem for the Democrats, it’s the question that overrides everything else, it’s the question that must be avoided and the subject changed at all costs. This election can’t be about Barack Obama’s record, it has to be about something else.

When River Song dodged the question about a “Madman in a Box” she could lean on the centuries of success of the Doctor

Unfortunately for the president, show a video montage of the Obama record and the reaction is the same as the above clip:

There were a lot of speeches yesterday. Mike Eurzonie gave a great one, Marco Rubio made a better one, Clint Eastwood made an odd one and Mitt Romney is giving his as I type this.

In the morning when this post will go up, there will be an awful lot of pixels spent to say what they think about Mitt’s speech but it was not the most important words said on the air yesterday. The most important words came from of all People Michael Moore:

Listen to these quotes:

The big problem is Obama’s base is ‘Yeah I think I’m going to vote for him’ but this time four years ago everybody including myself were working on phone banks.

and this

Young people who were voting for him four years ago are not that enthused and are not working like they were four years ago.

Moore did something you don’t often see him do, give an honest assessment of a situation, acting not as a propagandist but as a realist. He said out loud what a lot of people on the left know and what the media know but are doing their best to hide.

This post has over 10,000 comments I read through a bit over 50% during & after the Romney speech (a good speech but not a killer one) and from what I can see in comments it affirms what I’ve been saying for over a year…

Dr. Benjamin Franklin:John? I beg you consider what you’re doing.
John Adams: Mark me, Franklin… if we give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us.

Dr. Benjamin Franklin: That’s probably true, but we won’t hear a thing, we’ll be long gone. Besides, what would posterity think we were? Demi-gods? We’re men, no more no less, trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed. First things first, John. Independence; America. If we don’t secure that, what difference will the rest make?

Question to serious conservatives – how can Romney & Ryan say with a straight face that they now would allow rape as an exception when the GOP plank just adopted does not allow it? How can you vote for somebody that politically crass?

I have heard a million variations on this for months. You have a tough primary and people get sore when their person loses. A congressman or Senator votes against you once and you decided they aren’t getting your vote again. I hear it a lot on Mitt Romney, I hear it on Scott Brown and I even hear it once in a while on more local elections.

Soctt Brown for example is not pro-life, I under stand and hate that, but the choice in the US Senate isn’t between Scott Brown and a pro-life candidate, it’s between Scott Brown and Former Obama Administration Official Elizabeth Warren.

To my pro life friends, I ask the question: “Who is worse on the issue, and if they are the same, then who is better on everything else?”

It’s not a tough question to answer.

The same with Mitt Romney, I would like to have a person more consistently conservative. I supported Rick Santorum and would have infinitely preferred to vote for him, and in the Massachusetts Primary I did so.

But to my fellow Santorum fans et/al let me remind you in November the choice isn’t between Mitt Romney & Rick Santorum,. To the Ron Paul fans I say the choice isn’t between Mitt Romney & Ron Paul and to the everyone else on the right the choice isn’t between Mitt Romney and an idealized version of the complete Renaissance man.The choice is between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

That is the choice you have to make, one or the other. If you choose to duck this choice and as free Americans it is your duty to make the best possible choice. Let the left live in their utopialand, we on the right live in realville and there is a real choice to make here.

C.S. Lewis put it this way in Screwtape 12:

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.

The opposite is true as well, Mitt Ronney is an improvement over Barack Obama. Even if you think he is only a small improvement the idea is to start to move the country back in the right direction rather than continue moving it in the wrong one.

Margory Egan told us all about “Catholic Watchers” today in the Herald:

Dolan also offered his services to President Obama, it must be noted. But Catholic watchers yesterday all saw this as Dolan making an offer he knew would be refused since numerous Catholic groups are suing the Obama administration over contraceptive mandates in Obamacare.

If only those ever so smart “Catholic Watchers” knew that Catholic believers and leaders like Dolan actual think they would not have been blindsided by this little announcement.

“Timothy Cardinal Dolan, archbishop of New York, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention,” USCCB spokesman Joseph Zwilling said in a statement first obtained by Commonweal magazine. “As was previously announced, he will also be offering the closing prayer at the Republican convention on Thursday of this week.

At the time, Obama campaign officials said they would have a high-ranking Catholic offering a prayer in Charlotte. That turns out to be … Timothy Cardinal Dolan

before demonstrating that both he

The role of a bishop should be to promote dialogue, not to shut it down; to promote prayer everywhere and among all, not to selectively engage in it; and to remind people that faith is larger than politics.

And there are lessons in what he is doing, for anyone willing to look:

1) He’s teaching that the shepherd must be in the field with all the sheep, even as they are warring. He must be there for the recalcitrant ones over there in the left field; and the skittish, distrustful ones in the right field. Maybe all of the sheep are out to give the shepherd a hard time, but he’s still got to be there, doing what he can, gently but forcefully, or they all perish to wolves and opportunistic predators.

2) If a man can’t even be in a room with some people without causing hysteria and hyperventilation among other people, then everyone needs to take a freaking breath.

3) Jesus went out among the sick and sinful — and we’ve got plenty of sick and sinful all over the place; no partisan tag required. And no, he did not treat the sick and the sinful the way he treated the moneychangers. Let’s remember that when he acted out in the temple, he was doing it with an authority that no one on earth possesses. So, those of you who will be satisfied with nothing less than Dolan making a corded whip and scourging your political opponents? You’re out of luck.

…clearly understand what faith and the mission of the church is.

Meanwhile why the reversal by the DNC? Why risk the absolute wrath of the Sandra Fluke’s the Feminists and so many on the left that will be absolutely outraged at his appearance of a champion of life and an opponent to so many there. Why risk having to restrain the crowd from making any kind of floor demonstration during his prayer?

…well, these “Indigenous Muslims” (whatever that means) are going to hold their event some 3.5 mi. away from the actual DNC. They are not part of it or endorsed by it (DNC hasn’t condemned them either, for appropriating their name and giving a false impression).
They’d like people to believe they are part of the DNC, but the whole reason they have to hold their event that far away from the actual convention is precisely because they weren’t invited to be part of it.
So, they’re really a bunch of wannabes. And I’d be very surprised if they got a fraction of 20,000 people to attend.
Smoke and mirrors – bad people, to be sure (Siraj Wahaj), but not actually part of the DNC.

Doesn’t matter it’s the pictures that people remember.

Oh and DaWife asked me to shake DaTipJar as things are REALLY tight this month and if DaMamma isn’t happy, nobody’s happy

Update 2: Missed out the Hotair link, fixed. Sorry Ed

Update 3: Lisa Graas disagrees on both speaking engagments thinking it should be left to local bishops but absolutely NAILS it here.

Remember, our identity is in Jesus Christ, not disorders, not political parties, not anything else. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

It was my friend Jimmie Bise Jr. who pointed this out in September 2009: During a single three-month span of that year, Republicans contributed $4.3 million to the doomed campaign of Charlie Crist.

How’s that workin’ out for ya?

Jimmie has calculated — and I agree with his calculations — that you could run a pretty spiffy little conservative New Media operation for $500,000 a year if you knew what you were doing. But the problem is connecting (a) people with $500,000 to (b) people who know what they’re doing in terms of online news.

If we had listened to this crowd Charlie Crist would have been Barack Obama’s Goto republican in the senate. The “goto” Republican on every MSM TV show when they needed to paint the party as the problem in DC, he would have been the Arlen Specter of the south, the “goto” republican who could be counted on to appear on any network to hit the party until Pat Toomey beat him.

If you want to know why we need to primary guys like this, even if it occasionally costs us a seat, this is it.

As for Crist himself. Democrats backed him over their own candidate in a last ditch bid to stop Marco Rubio and like the useful idiot he is, Charlie is paying them back in the only coin he has left. He will get one more round on the Morning Talk shows before he fades, only to be pulled out when they need an “ex-republican” on a panel with an occasional appearance on liberal talk radio.

Update 2: If the left is actually thinking Crist might bring them votes in Florida, think again:

Crist represents no constituency other than himself.

In the 2010 Senate election, Crist ran as a sore-loser independent after it became obvious Rubio would win the GOP nomination. Exit polls showed that not only did Rubio overwhelmingly with the Republican vote (87% to 12% for Crist), but Rubio also won among independent voters (51% to 38%). Charlie is an “independent” who doesn’t appeal to independents, and actually got most of his votes from Democrats.

And as you read it, give another round of thanks to the Not One Red Cent group which back in May 2009, when the Republican establishment in the form of the NRSC was backing Crist, fought to get Marco Rubio attention and support.

Never forget if it wasn’t for the Not One Red Cent/grassroots crowd instead of a young dynamic Latino man who was in contention for the VP spot on the ticket you would have a member of the ScozzafavaHuntsmanCrist caucus.

Please remember that Charlie Crist wants us to accuse him of being a liberal. Calling him a liberal will only play into his hand. He hopes it will divert attention away from his record and his years of calling himself a Conservative. It’s important to remind people that Crist has made a career out of bashing the Democrat Party and everything President Obama stands for.

Steve makes an excellent point, Unlike say a Huntsman or a Dede Crist’s history is not all that moderate, he is bending left here because he’s burned his bridges on the right by his independent run and sees a chance to revitalize his dormant career by being the “Conservative for Obama”.

This morning I warned the right about the Traps the Todd Akin situation poses for them.

What might not be so apparent today is that there are several traps for the left that might be even more profound and dangerous than any for the right.

1. It’s the Todd Akin stupid:

Right now the left is salivating at the prospect of Todd Akin as part of the conversation. Akin might allow them an advantage for the next few days but when the campaign season begins in earnest after Labor Day it will be an old topic. If the left decides to play all Akin all the time the reaction of the voters who are not yet paying attention will be: “Who is Todd Akin and what does that have to do with me getting a job?”

2…The “You didn’t build it” syndrome:

One of the reasons why Barack Obama fell into the “You didn’t build it” trap was the reaction of his base to Elizabeth Warren’s remarks. The Todd Akin narrative plays very will with their base & the media. This will create a large temptation for them to go to this card with a sympathetic press when they have no good answer on topics more relevant to the voters

3. I’ll see your Akin and raise you a Joe Biden:

Todd Akin has apologized profusely for his gaffes and the GOP has loudly condemned him for it urging him to leave the race. If they choose to try to tie the entire GOP to a single congressman running for senate the GOP has a ready counter. Joe Biden’s gaffes have become so legendary that we are seeing tweets like this:

Baby steps MT @pounderfile: a good day for Biden: “The VP avoided making any major gaffes during his Rochester stop” is.gd/IO5pGO

Every single time the left says the words “Todd Akin” you have an opening to come back with Joe Biden and Biden is at the top of a national ticket.

4. Dueling conventions Todd Akin vs Bill Clinton:

Of all the things that are risky for the left pushing the Todd Akin story at the GOP convention is the most dangerous.

The entire “War on Women” already has risks for the left, but if they choose to use Akin as a club to beat the right with during the GOP convention the party has a ready answer. Bill Clinton.

For all the nostalgia of the Clinton years. President Clinton is firmly established in the mind of the country as a womanizer, a boss who used his power to get sex from a subordinate. And he is the Keynote Speaker for the Democrat Convention!

The late night jokes simply write themselves and that’s was without the Akin mess. Can you imagine the look on the face of the first Democrat operative who suggests the GOP is soft on rape and is answered with a sentence containing the words “Juanita Broaddrick”?

The left is in a position to avoid these traps if they are clever. Unfortunately for them, it’s in their nature to overplay this hand. They just have to hope the right doesn’t counter them properly.

Update: Democrats step in it, Hotair links to CNN report Dems add 9 women speakers to the program over Akin, each should be asked what they think about Bill Clinton giving the Keynote

Jay Cost has argued that Biden’s remark was not a gaffe, but rather an attempt to rally African-American support for Obama. To be sure, Obama has a stranglehold on that vote. However, Cost shows that, in a close election, he may need to carry it to the same extent he did in 2008. This time around, such an overwhelming majority would require a fired up, angry African-American electorate. Hence, Biden’s inflammatory rhetoric.

To apologize for that rhetoric, or even to walk it back, would amount to a concession that the Republicans don’t actually have it in for African-Americans. That’s not a concession Obama is eager to make.

I concede that the president needs help with his black base but in this case I suspect any voter who would fall for this is already locked in for Obama.

There is however another more important aspect of the Biden quote, something that Democrats don’t dare say aloud but are likely already wargaming.

When facing an unpleasant reality one of the hardest things to do is to face it. People will go to great lengths to avoid doing so.

For a long time I have maintained that Democrats are demoralized as hell, it is clear that the problem for Democrats this cycle is not at the bottom of their ticket, but at the top.

When the left is defeated in the fall, when they lose the White House, and Senate and when the House remains in GOP hands the question will be asked:

Why?

They will point to money, they will point to voter ID laws but the they dare not admit aloud the real reason: Barack Obama and his policies.

The left is a hodgepodge of various groups with conflicting positions and goals. If the blame for defeat is put on the first African American president there will be those in the Black community who will not forgive and forget. To a lesser degree Gay groups do NOT want any suggestion that the president’s decision to come out for Gay Marriage might have been a fatal blow…

I’ve really wondered about this until it hit me. This is battlefield prep.

Joe Biden solves many problems, Black American’s didn’t stay home because of President Obama’s failures, or his position on Gay Marriage, it was Joe Biden’s insult. Independents didn’t go to Romney because of the president’s policies it was Joe Biden, the buffoon dragging down the ticket. The House didn’t stay Republican and the Senate didn’t turn because of Tea party efforts and a rejection of Obamacare, it was Joe Biden who provided that drag.

Now don’t get me wrong, we still need to work hard, these guys want to win. They will play some dirty tricks to try to pull this off and of course if Mitt or the GOP somehow makes a mistake of epic proportions the left will do their best to capitalize on it.

But the more sober heads in the room already see the writing on the wall and the message that “Poor old Joe blew it.” will be a lot more palatable to the true believers than anything resembling self-reflection.

However, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not drawing the crowds they once could. The New York Times reported that the Obama campaign said that it is intentionally limiting crowd size at their events because of security and cost:

If you believe that, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Tinkerbell will show up, backing Axelrod in “Confiscated Guns ‘n’ Subsidized Roses“, and perform their 30-minute blues-rock jam, “In a Gadda da Bushdunnit” as an Obama fundraiser.

Like this:

I remember listening to the Morning Joe team complain day after day that this election was about nothing, that people weren’t talking issues, that the discourse has not been helpful to the American people.

Then yesterday Mitt Romney decided to get serious. He took out his white board and gave some details on the difference between his plan vs Obama’s and then took questions from the press that has been following him. The full video is available here

So here we have a candidate talking substance, here we have a candidate (in contrast to his opponent) taking questions from the actual MSM press as opposed to say People Magazine so how does Morning Joe react?

They laugh, they make fun of him, they talk about what a bad visual it is.They talk how only a candidate might decide on this because no professional pol can do it.

Like this:

We have been told over and over again that the Obama campaign is doing well in the swing states, that Romney/Ryan has no traction. That the election is Obama’s to win or lose.

If this is true can you explain why at a small bakery in Virgina the Vice president was turned down.

“Crumb and Get It” is a mom and pop store. Literally. Chris and his wife Kelly run the place and need all the business they can get.

McMurray said the Vice President’s entourage got to the point and made its pitch.

“She said they have selected ‘Crumb and Get It” to be his stop on his way to Blacksburg and was wondering if that was ok.”

Here’s the part that might make other business owners crazy.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime but essentially I said ‘No offense to you or the campaign but I just decline you guys coming in here. At that time she said ‘Are you sure? There’s going to be a lot of press, a lot of activity,’” McMurray said.

Why in the world would a new business owner say “no” to a photo op with the Vice President of the United States?

McMurray said it was President Obama’s recent remarks about small business and who built what.

“Very simply, ‘you didn’t build that’” McMurray said. “Speaking of small businesses and entrepreneurs all across this country and actually last night my wife was up all night. No sleep, she’s worked a full 24 hours.”

Listen any small business would LOVE to have that kind of publicity, but this guy decided that the trip of the sitting VP of the US was not worth it.

Folks, bottom line: this doesn’t happen if your side is winning.

And there are the crowds, have you seen the crowds? Robert Stacy McCain is in Ohio and sees them clearly

While we were at Skyline, our waitress explained that she had not been scheduled to work that day. She had come by the restaurant to check her schedule and the manager — swamped by the influx of patrons after the Ryan rally — asked her to help out.

“I’ve never seen so many Republicans in my life!” the waitress said of the afternoon crowd. I explained to her that it was probably due to Ryan’s endorsement of the “Five Way,” and told her this surge of business was “the start of the Romney-Ryan recovery.”

President Barack Obama has slightly more than 22 days to drop Vice Presidential Joe Biden from the 2012 Democratic presidential ticket, according to lawyers familiar with the party nominating process. That is, Democrats have until September 6 to formally nominate their presidential ticket which will then be qualified for the 50 state ballots.

This involves 2 different questions and they should be addressed independently:

I don’t believe that president Obama will drop Joe Biden or that he will “suddenly” develop a need to leave the ticket but the very fact that this is being discussed seriously shows the weakness of this campaign and the need for a “game changer”.

This is something the left and the democrats can not do without admitting failure and desperation but this whole public conversation is conducive to panic.

But let’s for the sake of argument say the party has decided they need a big roll of the dice and dropping He Biden is it. This begs the 2nd question Would Hillary Clinton take the job? The answer is NO.

Hillary Clinton can count, she knows where this election is going and a defeat on the ticket with Obama will not only stain her with the that failure but will link a Clinton campaign to Obama. She doesn’t want to base her campaign in 2016 to be linked to Obama. She wants to run as the return of the Clinton presidency.

Hillary Clinton knows the problem for the Democrats & the left is not the bottom of the ticket, it’s the top and that’s why Republicans should do this:

However, it cuts out the rest of Romney’s comments, mid-sentence. Here’s the transcript via Action 2 News:

Actually, Paul Ryan and my plan for Medicare, I think, is the same if not identical–it’s probably close to identical. Our plan is for people 55 years of age and older. There’s no change. The only change I’d mention for 55 or older is we’d restore the $817 billion President Obama took out of the Medicare trust fund.

You don’t play this game when you are winning.

Update 2: According to Ed Klein the offer to replace Biden came up two weeks ago, here was Hillary’s answer

“She felt that if she were on the ticket with Obama and he lost, she would be tarred as a loser when she tried to run in 2016,” Klein said. “On the other hand, if she was on the ticket and he won, and he continued his far left-wing socialistic policies, she’d have to defend those policies when she ran in 2016.”

Even Bill couldn’t talk her into it, proving once and for all she is smarter that he is.

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